Engaging Visitors Through Play

Museums Computer Group hosted by the Centre for Media Research

30th May 2013
University of Ulster, Belfast Campus
12:00 – 17:00
#MCGPlay

Followed by
#Drinkingaboutmuseums
Venue TBC
17:00 -19:00

A symposium showcasing local talent and international best practice. This event will provide delegates with a platform from which to explore how their museum could use games and play to create meaningful visitor engagement, and will provide game developers with an insight into emerging opportunities to work with museums and arts organisations both in Northern Ireland and internationally.

Engaging Visitors Through Play builds on the #ArtsNI series of digital meet ups held in Belfast, during 2012 and seeks to foster exciting, relevant and challenging conversations, collaborations and professional development opportunities for those working in and with museums and arts organisations.

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UKMW12: Strategically Digital

Facing a restricted budget and limited resources, museums already face immense challenges to stay current, innovative and hip. Introduce the growing desire and use of technology, and museums can struggle to keep up. The 2012 UK Museums on the Web Conference delivered insightful speakers with practical and executable advise and a chance to network with other museum and technology enthusiasts.

Themes and practical advise about executing technology projects in museums—not just a series of ‘eureka’ moments—are summarised below:

• mobile, Mobile and MOBILE! As Tom Grinsted of the Guardian stressed, apart from glasses, wedding rings and piercings, a mobile is the most intimate accessory we have. The importance of making content accessible on mobile platform is not only important but ESSENTIAL. 40% of visits were mobile based, and there has been a 170% growth of people accessing mobile content in the recent years. Furthermore, Google won’t even rank your page in its result if it isn’t mobile-friendly.
• Digital First; don’t ‘tack it on at the end’. John Stack of Tate and Rich Barrett-Small and Andrew Lewis of the Victoria & Albert Museum spoke of the difficulties of not putting digital first. Technology and digital aspects too often have a horizontal influence rather than a vertical presence. Indeed for the sake of seeing a project through to the end, it requires that technologists be included from conception to result.
• ‘Google Analytics is your friend’ and putting your audience first. Don’t guess what your users want; find out through extensive user testing and ready-available analytical software. Likewise, responding to these data rapidly is essential to creating something that your audience will use and enjoy.

Mia Ridge, the MCG Chair, opened up with what it means for a museum to be ‘strategically digital’; meaning that technology might not always be appropriate for the project in mind. Indeed, ‘not it’s about technology for the sake of it’. The speakers of the day followed this mentality offering tips for the trade, cautionary points and promoting the appropriate use of technology.

Session 1: Lessons from the sector

Andrew Dobson, of Grand Union, and Paul Rowe, of Vernon Systems gave outstanding keynotes and set the tempo for those to come. Andrew argued that technological standards, such as coding, are being adopted through community conversation and agreement, not governing forces, such as Microsoft.  Indeed, technological change is driven more and more by community consensus. Next up, Paul Rowe gave examples of success and faults on displaying collections online and the important of keeping the ‘visitor at the heart of the collection’. Small museums striving to publish and increase the accessibility of their collection have put all of their images online. Also a proponent for transparency, he mentioned how having your content and even other not so ideal matters promotes accessibility, such as the Indianapolis Museum of Art which gives information on its de-accessioning.

Next up, the guys at the V&A and Tate delivered a light-hearted, but sincere look at the current state of technology in the museum sector and where it needs to go. Stressing an iterative project, governance and the all too important, and often left out, cross-departmental communication, Andrew Lewis used flow charts to realistically show how a ‘brilliant idea’ becomes a product. Having a clear directive, involving technologists from the start and going off realism rather than idealism can help in seeing a project through to the end. Rich Barrett-Small also stressed the importance of developers; they are not ‘the grumpy guys down the hall’, but an essential component to any project from the start. They need to have a ‘strong and credible voice’.  John Stack from the Tate came next to discuss the importance of responding quickly to change and thinking realistically about digital projects; only two a year can be completed.

The Open Mic session gave others in attendance that day a chance to talk about projects they are working on or have done.

Session 2: Turning strategy into reality

After lunch and more networking, Tom Grinsted gave an inspiring and provoking presentation about his experiences with the Guardian and the importance of mobile integration. He broke through the traditional notion of creating mobile content based upon mobile users and their demographics. Rather, we should be looking at their motivations and interactions. From this and paying close attention to user studies (both HCI and analytical) we can design, through an iterative process, usable and accessible content. In a startling conclusion, he asked how many people in the audience are smart-mobile users; nearly everyone raised their hand. Then, of us in the audience who worked in an organisation, how many had mobile-accessible website. Very few did. We all use smart-mobiles, so why haven’t we pushed this in the organisations we work for? Next up, Nick Poole gave us tips for navigating the extensive ways to get your online content out there and how and why you should let those 3^rd parties (such as Google) ‘eat up your metadata’. His presentation gives a clear summary highlighting the difficulty, cost and benefits of different third parties. Definitely worth returning to for those organisations looking to get their names out there! Lastly, Simon Tanner of King’s College spoke about impact and the importance of having the answers to the lingering, but important, ‘so what’ question. Impact can be positive and it can be negative; in fact, he stressed the importance of negative impact. Only having positive impact is just marketing, he stated. Also impact isn’t just about return on investment and isn’t synonymous with high numbers. Indeed, evaluating impact goes much further and should include areas such as community change, education and engagement/outreach.

Session 3: Putting digital strategy into context

In the final session, the focus was the implementation of digital projects and strategy in a museum question. First up were Claire Ross and Jane Audas of the ‘Social Interpretation’ project at the Imperial War Museum. Seeming a bit negative at first, their experiences gave us the realisation of the difficulties in seeing a digital project through to the end. Promoting radical-trust, Social Interp may have been the case of ‘too hard, too fast’ as it was up against museum deadlines, but it has collected interesting and insightful comments from users. One of the key lessons and something for people in the heritage sector to think about is the way in which funding is given, used and what is expected from those who have funded a project. The mentality of ‘do as much as you can with the money you are given’ is not sustainable. Oh yeah, and QR codes don’t work! Next up was Stuart Dempster from the Strategic Content Alliance drove home the point of simplifying digital content for your audience, right down to how people donate. He highlighted the Powerhouse Museum as having excellent revenue collection practices with their simplified option to donate on their web. He also prompted the audience with the question of how digital collections can be used in online classrooms and virtual teaching. Could they be an asset for those in certain disciplines, or is there no substitute for the real deal? This is a question to be considered by academics and online collections managers. Wrapping up the conference was Katy Beale of Caper talked about Happenstance and Culture Hack. Happenstance deployed resident technologists to 3 locations in UK to undertake agile development. She stressed the importance of making communications transparent and visible. Highlighting the ‘Offbot’ project management system, she advocated for transparency of processes within digital projects.

#UKMW12 trended above Christmas on Twitter showing the level of engagement and interest from the audience and others not in attendance that day. Of course interesting topics and discussion about the workshop were circulating on the Twittersphere. One that caught my eye and is definitely worth exploring is how the ideas, partnerships and projects have developed next year at UKMW13.

The post ‘UKMW12: Strategically Digital’ from our official event blogger appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

“Hi, I’m Mia Ridge, I’m the Chair of the Museums Computer Group and I’d like to welcome you all to Museums on the Web 2012.

It takes a lot to put on an event like this so I’d like to start by thanking the MCG Committee, particularly Oonagh, Gemma, Rhiannon, Angus, John, David and Denise, the Programme Committee – Ross Parry, Melissa Terras, Stuart Dunn, Carolyn Royston – the speakers and our generous sponsors – Deeson Online, Adlib and Wellcome Collection. We also have a free copy of Museum ID magazine and vouchers for Ashgate publications in the reception area so make sure you pick one up.

I would like to congratulate the winners of the Association for Computers and the Humanities Ticket Bursaries – Lorna Richardson, Joy Hooper, Dominic Walker, Warren Posner and Alexandra Reynolds.

The tea breaks and lunch are an important part of the day so take the opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new people. We also have tours at lunchtime – sign up sheets at registration desk.

This is the 30th year of MCG events and conversations. We’ll hear in the AGM about how we used this anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on how best to serve the MCG community, but it’s summed up in two strands – inspiring and connecting peers, and supporting members by helping the wider sector understand digital.

The ‘strategically digital’ theme of today’s conference reflect both an international conversation at conferences and on social media, and local conversations on the MCG list and in the UK sector.
For me, being ‘strategically digital’ means the best solution for a project might not involve technology. It offers some solutions to the organisational change issues raised by the mismatch between web speed and museum speed, and it means digital decisions should always refer back to a museum’s public engagement strategy (or infrastructure plans for background ICT services) – it’s not about technology for the sake of it.

An important part of digital strategies seems to be the conversations the process of writing one starts in museums. Creating a digital strategy is a chance to listen to colleagues and understand their perspective, and to share your excitement about the possibilities and together come up with solutions for the challenges your museum faces.

Today is part of the same process – blog and tweet with #ukmw12 but also share your notes and talk with your colleagues.

And with that, let’s get on with it! I’d like to introduce Rosie Tooby from the Wellcome Collection…”

The post Chair’s welcome at UKMW12 appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

There’s an archive of tweets that mentioned #ukmw12 via the always useful searchhash.com.

We’d also love your feedback about the event – help us make next year even better by filling in this very short survey. And speaking of next year, you can subscribe to the MCG Events Updates list on MailChimp for advance notice of future events.

Blog posts and twitter roundups

• The rise of Creative Technology from Deeson Online
• ‘UKMW12: Strategically Digital’ from our official event blogger Rachel Kasbohm
• Rhiannon Looseley’s UKMW12 takeaways
• Lorna Richardson’s Museums, Internets & a New Job on Digital Public Archaeology
• Andrew Lewis’ UK Museums on the Web Conference 2012 on Digital Media at the V&A
• Mia’s Chair’s welcome at UKMW12 (and related, ‘Behind the themes’ at the UK Museums on the Web conference – UKMW12), personal highlights of UKMW12 and UKMW12 storified
• Sarah Fellows’ UK Museums on the Web 2012 on Museum Neverland
• Paul Rowe’s twitter archive/analysis for #ukmw12

Speaker notes

• Collection of speaker’s slides
• Adrian Stevenson’s Notes from WW1 Discovery Open Mic at UK Museums on the Web 2012
• Claire Ross’ Positive and Negatives of Digital R&D Notes from UKMW12

Speaker audio

‘The Rise of Creative Technology’ – Andrew Dobson

‘What do we want from online collections?’ – Paul Rowe

‘The realities of moving to Digital First’ – Andrew Lewis and Rich Barrett-Small
‘Tate’s Digital Strategy: The Times They Are A-Changin’’ – John Stack

Open Mic – Annette Haworth, Joe Baskerville, Adrian Stevenson, Richard Lumb, Shaun Osborne

‘CPD and mentoring opportunities with the AMA programme’ – Charlotte Holmes

‘The rapidly changing face of the digital audiences’ – Tom Grinsted
‘Share or sharealike – deciding how, when and where to share your digital content’ – Nick Poole
‘Curation and Impact for the Digital Age’ talk by Simon Tanner.

‘The Positives and Negatives of Digital R&D’ talk by Claire Ross and Jane Audas (the beginning of the talk is missing).
‘Organisational Transformation and Sustainability’ talk by Stuart Dempster.
‘People not Products: a radically different approach to digital strategy’ talk by Katy Beale.
Post talk Q&A and discussion with Claire Ross, Jane Audas, Stuart Dempster and Katy Beale.

The post UKMW12 round-up appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

In support of museums’ ongoing engagement in the world of the digital and encouragement of young professionals’ exploration of the digital humanities, ACH is pleased to offer up to five (5) ticket bursaries for student/unwaged participants in UKMW12.

Preference is given to first-time conference attendees or those who are new (one to three years) in the field.

To apply, please send a short email to Eric Johnson at ej9k@virginia.edu by 5pm GMT on Thursday, November 22, 2012, indicating any previous attendance at UKMW and briefly describing what you hope to gain from UKMW12 and your interest or involvement in the broader fields of the digital humanities and museums/digital heritage.

Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH)

The Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) is a major professional society for the digital humanities. ACH supports and disseminates research and cultivates a vibrant professional community through conferences, publications, and outreach activities. ACH is based in the US, but boasts an international membership (as of May 2012, representing 21 countries worldwide). The ACH is a member of the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) consortium.

Museums Computer Group (MCG) Museums on the Web (UKMW)

The Museums Computer Group (MCG) is a professional society for museum, gallery, archive and higher education professionals who work with museum technologies and digital heritage. The MCG organises the annual UK Museums On The Web (UKMW) conference for people who make museum websites great. UKMW12 will be held in London on 30 November 2012.

With a theme of ‘strategically digital’, UKMW12 provides an opportunity to think strategically about the impact of the digital revolution on museums and digital heritage projects. The sold-out conference brings together speakers from organisations including the Tate, the V&A, UCL, King’s College, the Guardian, Strategic Content Alliance, Collections Trust and Caper who’ll share their hard-won lessons about implementing digital strategies in museums, and the realities of working with online audiences and platforms.

The post Announcing ACH Bursaries for UKMW12 appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

Full details of the AGM can be found below.

The AGM will include the election of nominees to the Committee. If you would be interested in being nominated for a position on the Committee in the first instance please contact contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk.

Annual General Meeting

Friday 30th November 2012, 12:20-12:50pm
Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, UK

1. Apologies for absence

2. Minutes of the last AGM: Imperial War Museum 25th November 2011

3. Committee Reports:

• Chair – Mia Ridge
• Accounts – Angus Kneale (Treasurer)
• Membership – Secretary (John Williams)

4. Operational Reports

• Events – Gemma Sturtridge/Rhiannon Loosely
• Communications – Dafydd James/Denise Drake
• Professional Development – Carolyn Royston/Linda Spurdle

5. Questions from the Floor

6. Committee Elections
Nominations are invited for the following committee vacancies:

• Treasurer – 1 Vacancy
• Secretary – 1 Vacancy
• Members – No current vacancies

The following members reach the end of their second three year term in 2012 and must
therefore stand down:

• Angus Kneale
• John Williams

The MCG committee consists of nine members working across operational and
developments areas including events, communications and professional development
supported by an executive and administration group consisting of a chair, secretary and
treasurer.

Though MCG committee welcome nominations from all members whatever their
background the committee is currently keen to attract members who have or would like to
gain experience in the operational areas.

Anyone wanting more information should email us at contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk

Nominations must be received by the secretary by Thursday 29th November. Nominations should be sent to: secretary@museumscomputergroup.org.uk

7. Handover
The chair invites existing and new committee members onto the stage to introduce them.

8. Any other urgent business

9. Close of meeting

MCG Committee Elections AGM 2012

• Chair: Mia Ridge: to 2014
• Treasurer Vacancy
• Secretary Vacancy
• Members:
  • Gemma Sturtridge: to 2014
  • Rhiannon Looseley: to 2014
  • Angelina Russo: to 2014
  • Dafydd James: to 2014
  • Adrian Stevenson: to 2014
  • Oonagh Murphy: to 2014
  • Emma McLean: to 2014
  • Denise Drake: to 2013
  • Carolyn Royston: to 2013

The post Notice of the MCG Annual General Meeting at UKMW12 appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

The Museums Computer Group’s annual Museums on the Web conference – UKMW12 – will be held at the Wellcome Collection in London on 30 November 2012.

The theme for UKMW12 is ‘strategically digital’. Responding to the issues faced by museums today, UKMW12 is an opportunity to take a step back from everyday work and think strategically about the impact of the digital revolution on your museum and on the sector as a whole, including: digitally enabling the modern museum and its staff; sustaining the digital agenda and the realities of digital strategies and organisational change; and the complexities of digital engagement and the impact of social media on audience expectations.

As always, UK Museums on the Web is a day for being inspired by the latest ideas, for learning from case studies grounded in organisations like yours, and for networking with other technologists, curators, managers, academics, learning and marketing specialists in the museum and heritage sector.

With many thanks to our sponsors AdLib, Deeson Online and the Wellcome Collection:

Morning tea generously sponsored by Adlib	Afternoon tea generously sponsored by Deeson Online
Venue support from the Wellcome Collection

Sold out! Don’t miss out next time.

We’ve sold out but you can add your name our Events mailing list for occasional updates about future events by filling out the form below, or going to the MCG Events Updates list on MailChimp.
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Got questions?  Find out more at UKMW12′s FAQ.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us via twitter (@ukmcg) or contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk if you have other questions or comments.

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FAQ: what is UKMW12?

Museums on the Web is the Museums Computer Group’s annual conference about, well, museums and the web.  As always, UK Museums on the Web is a day for being inspired by the latest ideas, for learning from case studies grounded in organisations like yours, and for networking with other technologists, curators, managers, learning and marketing specialists in the museum and heritage sector.

The theme for UKMW12 is ‘strategically digital’. The conference will be an opportunity to take a step back from the everyday and think strategically about the impact of the digital revolution on your museum and on the sector as a whole.

FAQ: when and where is UKMW12?

30 November 2012 at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE.

FAQ: what time does it start?

We know many of you travel from around the UK for the event and like to book your tickets in advance, so our start and end times are as follows: registration is 9:15 – 9:45, and the Chair’s Welcome is at 9:45, with the first keynote at 10am.  The event will finish at 5pm.

We’re hosting an informal ‘museums and archives in the pub’ with the Archives Hub for people who’ve travelled to London the night before: ‘The Hub in the Pub will be on 29th November 2012 at the Carpenter’s Arms, London W1T 4EY, which is conveniently situated between Goodge St and Warren St and about 10 minutes from Tottenham Court Road station. We will be there from 18.00…’  Find out more at Hub in the Pub. People who are waiting out the peak time trains often go for a drink after the conference too.

FAQ: it’s sold out! How do I add myself to the ticket waiting list?

We have sold out, but there is a waiting list and we’re trying to sort out some additional tickets to release to the queue.  Add yourself on Eventbrite.

FAQ: is there a social event around UKMW12?

There is! Come for a drink, a chat and maybe a bit to eat on 29th November 2012 at the Carpenter’s Arms, London W1T 4EY, which is conveniently situated between Goodge St and Warren St and about 10 minutes from Tottenham Court Road station. We will be there from 18.00-20.00, so come along any time.

We’re meeting up with our friends from the world of archives, kindly organised by the Archives Hub.  Find out more at their post, ‘Hub in the Pub‘.  Anyone interested in cultural heritage and technology is welcome – it doesn’t matter whether you’re attending UKMW12 or not.  We’re also telling people about it using the twitter hashtag #drinkingaboutmuseums (e.g. the New York edition for some background on the concept).

FAQ: where can I ask a different question?

Please don’t hesitate to contact us via twitter (@ukmcg) or contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk if you have other questions or comments.

Keynote bios

Andrew Dobson

Andy is a self-taught coder and hard-wired geek. Part of the Sinclair generation, he has learnt to use and misuse technology to make an easier world to live in. He is as surprised as anybody that you could actually make a career out of it. Formally head of Creative Technology at BSkyB, he is now Technical Director at the digital agency Grand Union and regularly lectures on technology, innovation and creativity. He lives in North London with his family, the world of cat, and a righteous collection of classic 90′s electronica records.

Paul Rowe, CEO, Vernon Systems

The post UK Museums on the Web: ‘Strategically Digital’ programme preview and FAQ appeared first on Museums Computer Group.

There are 5 open mic slots available to talk for no more than 5 minutes. These can be informal and provide you with the opportunity to tell us about a project you are working on, make suggestions for projects or ask for help on something. (They should not simply be used as an ad break).

If you’re interested in presenting please contact David Little in the first instance.  The deadline for submission is Wednesday 31 October.

Please note open mic presenters will need to register as fee paying delegates for the event. Tickets can be purchased from Eventbrite.

UKMW12: Strategically Digital will be held at the Wellcome Collection on 30 November 2012 and will be focusing on strategic responses to the impact of digital technologies on museums and the sector in general. As always it will be a day for learning, getting inspired (and maybe inspiring others!) and networking with other technologists and museum professionals.

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The Committee of the Museums Computer Group is excited to announce that our annual conference Museums on the Web – UKMW12 – will be held at the Wellcome Collection in London on 30 November 2012.

Nick Poole addresses the audience at UK Museums on the Web, 2007

The theme for UKMW12 is ‘strategically digital’. The conference will be an opportunity to take a step back from the everyday and think strategically about the impact of the digital revolution on your museum and on the sector as a whole. As always, UK Museums on the Web is a day for being inspired by the latest ideas, for learning from case studies grounded in organisations like yours, and for networking with other technologists, curators, managers, learning and marketing specialists in the museum and heritage sector.

Tickets for UKMW12 – sold out!

Sold out! Don’t miss out next time.

We’ve sold out but you can add your name our Events mailing list for occasional updates about future events by filling out the form below, or going to the MCG Events Updates list on MailChimp.
* indicates required

The Call for Papers has now closed, and we will be notifying people of the results soon.

We are interested in proposals on topics such as:

• Digitally enabling the modern museum and its staff;
• Sustaining the digital agenda and the realities of digital strategies and organisational change;
• The complexities of digital engagement and the impact of social media on audience expectations;
• Relevant case studies that situate digital projects within organisational strategic objectives, or papers that draw actionable lessons from an overview of the national and international heritage sector.

If you would like to propose a paper for one of these themes, please email contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk by 12 October 2012 with the following information:

• Your name
• The organisation you work for (if applicable)
• The title of your paper
• A 200-word summary of what your paper will cover
• How your paper relates to the theme
• Links to any online videos, slides or reports from previous talks that give a sense of your presentation style
• Have you given this paper or talked about this project at a previous conference? If so, which conference and when?

The UKMW12 Programme Committee will aim to make a decision on the Programme by 19th October 2012.

We look forward to reading your proposals. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via twitter (@ukmcg) or contact@museumscomputergroup.org.uk if you have any questions or comments.

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